Story: Myrna and Myra are identical twin teens in the
Eisenhower administration, except that they are polar opposites in
personality. And there’s that difference in chest sizes, too, with
Myrna most amply endowed while Myra resembles the proverbial
pancake. Myrna is ultra-conservative in her beliefs, looking for
Mr. Right in their home town of Mineola, New York, while Myra beds
down the entire high school football team. When Myra adds Myrna’s
frustrated boyfriend Jim to her conquests, though, Myrna seeks
vengeance against her promiscuous sister in what becomes a
decades-long battle.

While Myra joins various left-wing causes, legal or
otherwise, Myrna strives to raise Kenny Jr. as best she can during
the Nixon administration. High stress levels, however, can cause
Myrna to cause electrical surges in her immediate vicinity and she
becomes the subject for some psychotherapy. Eventually she
stabilizes enough to become a nationally known conservative talk
show host admired by many, including her nephew Ben, in the years
of the first Bush administration. It’s an impromptu meeting with
Ben that provides Myrna with some information useful to her in her
newest right-wing cause that could carry tragic consequences.

Highlights: Continuing its season of presentations of works
by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, Muddy Waters
Theatre’s current offering is an amusing production of Vogel’s 1996
comedy that looks at four decades of American political and social
extremes through the prism of disparate twins. Anchored by a
winning performance by company co-founder and co-artistic director
Patty Ulrich as the polar opposite but equally impassioned sisters,
this interpretation provides an engaging enactment of Vogel’s broad
and bemused satire of 20th century America and particularly the
changing role of women in society.

Other Info: Cameron Ulrich, Patty’s husband and the company’s
other co-founder and co-artistic director, smoothly blends the
talents of his wife and the rest of the small cast to keep this
comedy percolating smoothly for its two hours and two acts. Patty
in particular moves deftly between the sexually and emotionally
repressed Myrna and the carefree and careless Myra to explore the
outrageous comedy inherent in Vogel’s script. In the last scenes
of the show, she’s also a woman in constant motion, keeping the
wardrobe folks in the back plenty busy as she alternates between
parts as the sisters have a confrontation of sorts.

Jamie Marble lends solid support, first as Myrna’s earnest
if sexually frustrated boyfriend Jim and later as Myra’s lesbian
lover Sarah. With the meticulous assistance of hair and makeup
designer Samantha Toledo and costume designer Keaton Treece, Marble
effectively plays both parts in a subdued fashion that ironically
works quite well for the exaggerated script.

Andrew Kuhlman also plays two roles in hilarious form. As
Myrna’s tightly controlled son, Kenny, he delights in the antics of
his renegade aunt and comically involves himself in her exploits.
As Myra’s own son, Ben, Kuhlman finds the humor in Ben’s bonding
with his right-wing Aunt Myrna as he attempts to get her autograph
on a copy of her latest political manifesto.

Satia Hutton and Carrie Dougherty have fun as the silent
chorus, dressing up as various G-Men or other background figures
hunting Myra or trailing Myrna as they pursue their respective
political and social agendas.

Tony Anselmo’s lighting accentuates the minimal props that
adorn the spartan stage, which serves primarily as the foreground
for Joshua Thomas’ delightfully impish projection design. Thomas’
background videos and artwork range from a 1950s documentary
instructing schoolchildren how to react to an atomic attack to
amusing illustrations that accentuate the eras of the Mineola
twins. Jerry McAdams’ sound design provides complementary
background sounds, although his curious selection of contemporary
tunes seems culled from “oldies but not so goodies” instead of
livelier hits, with the exception of a Beatles snippet.

Vogel’s “Mineola Twins” is a broad, satirical look at how
women changed their role in American society, moving forward
through both liberal and conservative eras, in a battle of minds
and hearts that continues today. That look is both goofy and
amusing in the quaint rendition presented with the Ulrich’s
inspired flair.